Walmart???????????why

[F4Gary]

Originally Posted by easywind

One thing I see totally missing from this thread is time and what your time is worth. I hate going to a big box store because it's the only game in town and I need 1 or two items and need to spend 1/2 hour, 1 hour because there is no help and the two items you need are at opposite ends of a 1/4 mile long store. Then you need to stand in line behind someone who has shopped for 10 people for the month. I'd rather pay more get in and out and get done.

Exaggerate much?

[JackieW]

We took our first RV trip last summer and our first night was spent in a Walmart parking lot. It was convenient and I am thankful that they allow people to park in their lots. Of course, Walmart benefits from RV’ers shopping in their stores. Back home, I prefer to shop the smaller stores to support local businesses. Walmart has driven out the competition, especially in smaller towns and then pay their employees minimum wages and benefits. Many of their employees are on food stamps and medical assistance. Employees have no options because Walmart is the only employer around. That’s why I don’t normally shop there. Please pass the popcorn.

[Coral]

Walmart when it was a young corporation was a buy American made in America seller. But they changed as we all know along with the rest of American retail. It was dog eat dog. Look at the all the family businesses that are all gone. My favorite was my local hardware store, I loved those stores with great customer service, and then they were eaten by TrueValue and ACE who was eaten by Sears Hardware that was eaten by Lowes and Home Depot. Same holds true for the local mom and pop grocer all mostly gone. I personally do not like Walmart or the class of people that frequent the stores. I will overnight park and buy something as a curtesy, but I do not shop there. I miss the retail of years gone by and for now I fully embrace Amazon.

[95B20V5]

My wife is a 100% disabled veteran and gets her SSDI (yes she worked 20+ yrs) check and I am a 30% disabled veteran who is retired at 50 after working fultime for 32yrs.
I just want my EBT card to use at Walmart and find it impossible.
Yet when I am in various Walmart’s I see a majority of the shoppers in their 20-30s with EBT cards shopping. I want to stick a gun in my mouth some days.

[MisterT]

Originally Posted by sho4go

3 years ago Wal Mart opened "community stores" in small towns with less than 1000 population. Those communities and the surrounding areas were being served by small independent, family run grocery stores. There wasn't enough business for two stores and profit margins on groceries are pitiful. Wal Mart knew this. But they opened anyway. Shut down the competition. Then closed them all about a year ago. Offered the employees positions at stores that were 20+ miles away, even though they had stores with closer proximity, "no positions were available" there. Now those communities have no where to go except to drive 15-20 miles or more to get groceries and other sundries. Sometimes there are other better reasons to shop somewhere than just prices.

I'll have to disagree with your assumption of what happened with these 'community' stores, as you call them. There was a brand new one in our town, right across from a Dollar General, the only two 'brand name' stores in our very small town, along with the traditional independent grocer, the independent drug store, etc.
The new store did NOT hire anyone locally, only those from other stores that were willing to drive to this 'new' one. No one who worked their LIVED there, either. This store also, differently, had fuel pumps. It sold grocery items and had a drug store.
One year later is was closed.

It did NOT shut down any other existing stores in town. It sent it's out-of-town workers to other stores elsewhere, if they chose. It was NOT shut down for any other reason than corporate found that these stores only served to cannibalize it's larger stores in larger cities, which these customers drove to anyway.

The 'old' Wmt is now the 'NEW' Dollar General, who also, interestingly, is one of the few who now have fuel pumps!


Ours is one of the few towns who have experienced Wmt in the 'community', and now no longer have to.(unless we want to drive to one, of course!)

[sho4go]

This wasn't an assumption, it was exactly what happened in Godley, TX, Diana, TX, Waskom, TX, Lone Star, TX, Hughes Springs, TX, Naples, TX, Edgewood, TX, Frankston, TX, etc, etc, etc.

[Eez Moose]

I find that there has been a total disconnect with reality when it comes to blaming Walmart fo the demise of small town businesses. The real culprit is the shopper willing to jeopardize their towns future just to save a penny or two an item. Walmart does not put any other business out of business the people 100% to blame are the shoppers. If you don't patronize a Walmart the corp will shut the door.

[Cat320]

Originally Posted by sho4go

This wasn't an assumption, it was exactly what happened in Godley, TX, Diana, TX, Waskom, TX, Lone Star, TX, Hughes Springs, TX, Naples, TX, Edgewood, TX, Frankston, TX, etc, etc, etc.

The majority of these stores were shut down because they were a combination of old, not profitable or not as profitable as WM corp liked them to be.

[Hit_the_Rhod]

Originally Posted by iowasnowbird

Do all you Walmart haters still park in their lots when traveling? If so I find that a bit hypocritical.

Maybe they can justify to themselves parking in the Walmart Parking Lot because they refuse to buy anything at the store!

For more in depth reading google the definition of "Hypocrisy"!

Walmart isn't the fount of all evil, it's a capitalist company which does what it can to stay in business and ahead of the competition.

Easy choice, if you don't agree with their business model, don't shop there. What could be easier?!?

[Hit_the_Rhod]

On another note. My wife and I are small business owners. We design and create sculptures out of metal and stone. We started off doing "yard art", mostly flat, some 3d. We found that a local company who purports to sell "hand made by the artist" metal stuff coincidentally came out with near perfect copies of many of our hottest selling items within about two or three shows of their seeing our work . . .

We got tired of having our design constantly being copied, so we had choices to make.

• Continue on as we were, with the other guy underselling us as he had his most profitable items sent to China or Mexico and then imported by the container load and for sale for cheaper than we could purchase our raw material in this country for.
• Constantly coming up with new designs so we would be on the cutting edge of new designs and him playing catch up.
• Go out of business.

None of these options were any that we were comfortable with, so instead we branched out, started creating much more intricate, higher end sculptures that can't be as easily copied, and which are displayed by us at higher end art shows that he can't get into.


It has worked for us. We no longer try and compete with the "volume producer" who goes off shore for his (personally created by the artist) supply of "art".


Instead, we evolved into a business that fills a nitch, and can not be copied as easily.


It's a Darwinism world! Evolve, or go under. . . . it's a simple as that.

[mikebreeze]

I shop at Walmart. Though I do believe that they tend to beat up their suppliers for the lowest cost in order to buy their merchandise, and that they don't pay their employees the most nor have the best employee benefits, I am retiree and have to shop where prices are the lowest. And Walmart wins most of the time.

[sho4go]

" The majority of these stores were shut down because they were a combination of old, not profitable or not as profitable as WM corp liked them to be."
These stores were only about a year old. And Wal-Mart, with all of their resources should have known what the potential roi would be before they ever turned the first shovel of dirt. In the state of Texas, sales tax reports are available to the general public, providing even the disinterested individual all of the retail sales data one would need to know about the potential sales volume available in in these communities. Wal-Mart doesn't need apologists for the way they conduct business, they don't do anything illegal, but it's my belief that some of what they do is immoral.

[UFO Pilot]

Originally Posted by sho4go

" The majority of these stores were shut down because they were a combination of old, not profitable or not as profitable as WM corp liked them to be."
These stores were only about a year old. And Wal-Mart, with all of their resources should have known what the potential roi would be before they ever turned the first shovel of dirt. In the state of Texas, sales tax reports are available to the general public, providing even the disinterested individual all of the retail sales data one would need to know about the potential sales volume available in in these communities. Wal-Mart doesn't need apologists for the way they conduct business, they don't do anything illegal, but it's my belief that some of what they do is immoral.

Blame the politicians, etc who allowed WalMart to build the stores. WalMart didn't build without approvals and permits. WalMart has been stopped locally time and again by City Councils, etc. I don't agree with stopping them but that is the way it is done. Lowe's was refused approvals to build here but they allowed a local hardware store to build on the same property.

[Wundertaker]

Folks...it's NOT that difficult...basic human nature!

It's Human Nature...the Overwhelmingly Majority of Humans want the Most they can GET for the LEAST AMOUNT OF MONEY!

Economics 101 and the Basic Laws of Nature...Survival of the Fittest and stuff like that???

Don't forget about the Greed Factor

Whatever your world looks like today...it ain't gonna look like that tomorrow, no matter how bad you want it to be YOUR WAY!

Ain't gonna be my way either...however, I'm ok with that

Later, I'm goin fishin' while there's still water in the pool!